Stanley Clarke – Bass

This is a request from an email I got through the website – the track has a history. When Stanley Clarke and Jaco and a small number of other ‘superstar’ bassists started to appear on the scene, established bassist Charles Mingus was very scathing and suggested that, despite the chops, people like Clarke couldn’t play the blues that formed the backbone of Jazz until that point. Clarke took up the challenge and recorded the tune ‘Blues For Mingus’ in response. In truth, Mingus had a point as this performance shows – it has merit and shows that Clarke was aware of the nuances of the idiom but, at the same time, it is a bit crap 🙂 In his defence, I do think Clarke was taking the p*** a bit as some of the idiomatic details are exaggerated to the point of parody (there is one four bar section where the whole thing falls apart but it sounds to me like Clarke meant it to – otherwise he wouldn’t have released it).

Anyway, ask and ye shall receive! This is ‘Blues For Mingus’ from the 1979 Stanley Clarke album ‘I Wanna Play For You’.